Here's the new Akron/Family video, for "Silly Bears," the first track off their latest album, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT, which—oh, hey!—came out today as well. The video is described as "part Rubik's Cube, part Time Bandits," with plenty of bears as well. S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT—uh, let's just call it Shinju from now on—is the first Akron/Family record to be released since members Seth Olinsky and Dana Janssen moved to Portland. The album was reportedly written on the side of a Japanese volcano and recorded in an abandoned Detroit station, but I think it's fair to say that at least some small part of it originated here in Portland as well.
If that's not enough bonkers Akron/Family related video for you, Olinsky also sent this video to End Hits just this morning. It's a demonstration video, of sorts—maybe it should be called a de-demonstration video—for Olinsky's line of New Signal Process music hardware, designed to turn your iPhone into a fully capable recording studio. This video (that's Olinsky on guitar and lighter fluid) was shot in St. Johns with Reset Beat Films as a kind of tribute to Jimi Hendrix at Monterey. I highly suggest you watch it. There's even a cameo by a copy of the Portland Mercury, which, unfortunately, meets an unhappy end.